Tuesday, January 30, 2007

It's Not Over!

With last weeks annoucement of the lineup for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, taking place in late April, it was revealed that Crowded House would play their first concert in over a decade at the Indio, CA site. On November 24, 1996, Neil Finn, Nick Seymour, and the late Paul Hester played, what was intended to be their farewell performance, in front of an estimated 120,000 people on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. How many bands can you think of that would pull that many people if they decided to play their last ever concert tomorrow? Certainly not this year's Coachella festival headliners Bjork, Red Hot Chili Peppers, or a similarly reunited Rage Against the Machine. Rage did play a farewell performance in 2000 in LA, and that was in an arena that holds just over 7,000 people. I'm sure they could have easily sold more tickets than that, but the number wouldn't have come close to what Crowded House accomplished on the island continent in '96. So the Rage reunion gets all the press and the headline slot, but the real news story for me is the return of one of the most underrated bands of all time.

Talking about the decision to reform his old band, Neil said “After spending most of last year making music and hanging out with my friend Nick Seymour we are now announcing our intention to reform Crowded House with a new record entitled Time On Earth. It feels right to us that the band should re-emerge at this time and together with Mark Hart we look forward to reconnecting with the audience that we established and for whom we still hold a deep respect. We aim to make the upcoming shows and the new music every bit as vital and spirited as what has come before. We are conscious that Paul Hester was above all a great drummer and we are currently auditioning to find someone special to take that role.”

The following clip of 'Don't Dream It's Over' was taken from that farewell performance just over 10 years ago in Sydney: